In Private, Steve Bannon Mulls Run For Presidency

Steve Bannon is fed up with Trump—and has privately said he would consider running for president himself in 2020.

According to Vanity Fair, former White House chief strategist Steven Bannon has mulled over the possibility of running for president, should Trump be unwilling or unable to do so. Bannon seems to be displeased with the direction Trump has taken post-election, having claimed that the president has "lost a step" and seemed too friendly with establishment Republicans.

In October, Bannon called an adviser and said he would consider running for president if Trump doesn’t run for re-election in 2020. Which Bannon has told people is a realistic possibility.

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Bannon has also remarked on the toll the office has taken on Trump, telling advisers his former boss has “lost a step.” “He’s like an 11-year-old child,” Bannon joked to a friend in November.

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“He’s much more moderate,” Bannon said, sipping a Fiji water. “He’s an accommodationist. Trump’s tendency is to always get Maggie Haberman in there. He reads The New York Times. To him that’s the paper of record.”

Bannon also noted that he could do more on his own than he ever could have inside the White House under Trump:

“I realize in hindsight I was just a staffer, and I’m not a good staffer. I had influence, I had a lot of influence, but just influence.” He told me he now feels liberated. “I have power. I can actually drive things in a certain direction.”